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Wages Increase in Washington, D.C.
January 27, 2006
In the fiscal year 2006 budget that went into effect on January 17, Washington, D.C., allocated an additional $6 million to fund payment of ''a living wage'' to home health care workers and personal care assistants in the District's Medicaid program. According to a January 13 Department of Health (DOH Notice of Emergency and Proposed Rulemaking, the increase was ''necessary for the immediate preservation of the health, safety and welfare of Medicaid recipients who are in need of services provided by personal care and home health aides.'' The measure raises wages from a range of $7 to $9 to a minimum of $10.50 an hour.
Providers had argued that the previous wages were too low to attract enough workers to provide the care needed by Medicaid waiver clients. Noting that ''Federal rules require that the state Medicaid rates be sufficient to enlist enough providers to make certain that access to services is, at a minimum, comparable between program recipients and the general population,'' the DOH notice said the increase make the District's wages competitive with those paid in surrounding jurisdictions
Elise Nakhnikian, Communications Specialist
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
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